Something to ponder today:

In his welcome speech at Nonprofit Boot Camp, Darian Rodriguez Heyman - Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation - talked about the difference between dreamers and visionaries.

According to Darian, there are dreamers everywhere. We all know them: they’re the people who see the big picture. They know exactly where they are, where they’re going, and what it will look like when they get there - from A to Z. I’d be willing to bet that just about every person at Bootcamp was a dreamer - we all had a picture in our heads of exactly what our dream would look like once we achieved it, down to the tiniest detail.

Visionaries, however, are harder to come by. They’re the people who, in addition to seeing the big picture - the A to Z - they can also see the B to Y: all the little steps in between that will get them to their dream. Visionaries are people who figure out how to make things happen, and then do it - people like Walt Disney, Jim Henson, and Andrew Carnegie (who are my three biggest heroes, by the way). Every one of those men started with nothing but an idea of how they wanted things to be - and then put everything they had into figuring out how to get there.

It’s an interesting way of looking at it, which I had never thought of before - it really does make clear what sets the visionaries (my heroes) apart from the rest of the “big ideas” people. I’ve got the A and Z part down, and I think I’ve even got the B and parts of the C figured out. There’s a long way to go to find that D through Y, but somehow knowing that there are definite steps out there that will lead me to the Z makes it easier to keep working to find them.

My Drama Farm Moo Cards arrived last week - a little too late to take them to Boot Camp, but exciting nonetheless!

Check them out:

You can see the rest of the photos, taken by the fabulous Ben Peoples, on my flickr page.

What do you think?

Apparently we’re not the only chickens doing theatre…

There’s lots more where this came from - check out Doug Savage’s Savage Chickens cartoons!

Derrick recently did a great interview with Steli Efti about Supercool School, a new global online school that Steli is working on. Steli’s got some great ideas about education and making learning fun and interesting - rather than focusing on assimilating to the rules, structures and expectations of a formal school system, he’s working on creating a platform for people to help each other find the knowledge they desire and need. It’s actually a lot like the “open-source education” idea that Derrick and I both wrote about a while back.

You should definitely check out the whole interview, but here’s an excerpt from it that particularly spoke to me:

We want to get the sauce tasty. I often use the analogy of inventing tomato sauce. Tomato sauce was a huge invention - a great idea per se. But if you got the recipe wrong - it’s not tasty and people won’t eat it. So in our case, we believe that what we wanna do is a great idea and it will succeed. But we’re not 100% positive that the recipe is perfect right now so what we want to do is get it out there to as many people as possible and get feedback. If people say “mmmhhh…tasy” that’s great. If not, that means back to the kitchen table and more experimenting till we get it right.

This is exactly how I feel about where we are with the Drama Farm right now. We’ve got what we think is a great idea, but now we need to test it out and see how it works - where the obstacles are, what needs to be tweaked and fixed to make it better, and also what’s really great about it and what we should keep.

Steli talks about using Facebook as a way to get feedback from a large community of people, and I’ve been thinking about ways we could do that too. I’ve also been thinking that we need to just jump in and do it - maybe create a small “beta version” of the Drama Farm, and try it out next summer. I think we won’t know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into until we try, so let’s do it!

If you’re a student, theatre professional, or just interested in what we’re doing, and you’d like to be one of our “beta testers”, leave a comment below or drop us an email. And spread the word to other people you know - the next step is to build a real community of people and get as much feedback as we can, as we start to put together a program for next summer. This is one case where too many cooks will definitely not spoil the sauce!

Also, check out Steli’s post elaborating on his tomato sauce analogy, and take a look at Peopleized, where Derrick did his interview - I haven’t played with it a lot yet, but what I’ve seen is very cool!

As promised, some more of my random ramblings as I sort through the whirling Boot Camp-induced tornado that is my brain.

When we last left our free-range dreamers, they were pondering this topic:

Find ways that doing what you do can help other people

Everyone always says that the best way to improve your own situation is to help others improve theirs - it’s sort of like networking karma.

Boot Camp was no different - in the welcome speech and the morning keynote, Darian Rodriguez Heyman and Ami Dar both talked about how using your resources to help the people around you will foster an attitude of cooperation and inspire others to help you with your own work. Darien even challenged everyone at Boot Camp to find two people they could help in some way over the course of the day - either by making connections, suggesting resources, or just sharing ideas. (I found my two!)

The thing that struck me the most about helping others, though, was in the Social Entrepreneurship workshop I went to. Rather than just helping other organizations in hopes of good karma bringing something back to them, Room to Read and GOOD Magazine have actually found a way to use what they’re already doing to help both their own organizations and each other’s.

When GOOD was ready to launch their magazine, they didn’t have the resources (or the desire) to conduct a $12 million direct mail campaign to find subscribers. Instead, they found some organizations with worthwhile causes - like Room to Read - and made a deal with them: Subscribers to the magazine would be given a choice of which of GOOD’s 12 nonprofit partners their subscription fee would be donated to in its entirety; in return for these donations, Room to Read (and the other nonprofit partners) would spread the word about the magazine to their existing base of supporters, encouraging them to subscribe to GOOD - in effect, getting a magazine subscription and giving a donation to Room to Read at the same time.

It’s a win-win situation: GOOD boosts their subscription base, thereby increasing their ad revenue (which is where they make their money), without spending $12 million to do it. At the same time, Room to Read gets even more donations, because their contributors are getting something tangible - a magazine subscription - rather than just a thank-you from the organization. By thinking about how what they were already doing could benefit other organizations, Room to Read and GOOD Magazine were able to join forces and make the most out of their combined resources.

So now I’m thinking, how could we do that with the Drama Farm? What would we be providing that might be of use to someone else? I’m still mulling over the possibilities - if you’ve got any thoughts on the matter, leave a comment - I’d love to hear your ideas!

So, I got back from Nonprofit Boot Camp at 8:00 last night, and my head is still spinning! It was almost 12 hours of fabulous workshops, keynotes, and chatting with other nonprofiteers, and now that it’s over I’m sorting through all of the new ideas and perspectives I’ve found. Here’s just a few of the big things I took away from it - I’m sure there will be more to come in the next few weeks, as I continue to ponder…

Make sure the nonprofit world is right for you

I went to three great workshops, all led by panels of amazing people, but the one that made the biggest impact on my fundamental plans for the Drama Farm was the Reality of Starting a Nonprofit workshop. Ninive Calegari of 826 Valencia (home of the fabulous Pirate Store, as well as many excellent writing and tutoring resources) strongly cautioned against rushing into becoming a nonprofit before exploring the many other options available to small organizations.

If all you’re looking for is the ability to receive tax-deductible donations, you should look into organizations that provide fiscal sponsorship. Basically, they extend the umbrella of their 501(c)(3) status to the organizations they sponsor, accepting tax-deductible donations on their behalf, and then passing the funds on to the supported organization. If you’re in San Francisco, take a look at Intersection for the Arts - they serve as fiscal sponsors of over 100 organizations in the Bay Area.

Another option is to have a fund set up somewhere like the San Francisco Foundation. People can donate money to the Foundation, earmarked for your organization. The money goes straight into your fund, and the Foundation then gives your organization grants out of that fund.

Ninive and the other panelists stressed how complicated the life of an organization can become once it incorporates as a nonprofit, and pointed out that many organizations may never need to. Other than tax-deductible donations for our contributors, the other major benefit the Drama Farm would get from becoming a nonprofit is that we wouldn’t have to pay income taxes - but until we actually have some income, maybe it’s not worth the hassle. So I’m pondering…

Use your Network!

Another thing that everyone stressed, in every workshop I attended, was using the power of your network. Here’s just a few of the key points:

• Ben Rattray of Change.org talked about empowering your network - making it easy and fun for your peers, friends and supporters to contribute to your organization - either by contributing money, getting involved, or just spreading the word to their own networks. Make them feel like part of the whole, and they’ll be more inclined to work for the betterment of the whole.
• John Killacky of the San Francisco Foundation talked about activating your network and cultivating relationships. Once you’ve got your idea nailed down, tell everyone you know. The more people who know what you’re doing, the more likely you are to find the people who are inspired about your plans and passionate about getting involved. Once you’ve found those people, keep in touch with them. Don’t just call on them when you need them - send them updates and progress reports; show them that their opinions and support are important to you, even when you don’t need something tangible from them.
• Jayson Morris of Room to Read talked about one way to activate your network - by creating a buzz list: ask your supporters to sign up, and when you’ve got something really important to spread the word about (the kickoff of a new fundraising campaign, an exciting new programming offer), send them an email. Even if there’s only 20 people on your buzz list at first, if every person on that list passes the word along to 10 of their friends, you’ve just increased awareness of your organization by 200 people! Just make sure not to abuse the list, or you might find yourself in their spam filters!

Find ways that doing what you do can help other people

I have a whole lot more to write about on this topic, but this post is already getting insanely long (there really is a lot of stuff whirling around in my head!) So, I’ll save this one for tomorrow - just to keep you in suspense! =)

Last week, Chris Brogan charged us Grasshoppers with the following goal: “This week, at least twice, spend a moment of your time promoting someone else.” I wrote a few days ago about Derrick and his fresh outlook on education, but I was holding off on my second bout of promotional love because I know so many amazing people - there’s just too many to choose from!

But as I sat in my neighborhood coffeeshop this afternoon, taking refuge from the ruckus of refinishing the floors in the apartment above mine, I knew exactly who I needed to write about. The Crosstown Community Center & Coffeehouse, where I was quietly sipping my mocha, listening to someone play the piano as I worked on my laptop, has been an inspiration to me since the day it opened - one year ago this Friday.

Three years ago, Crosstown was just an idea - a dream that a pastor at a local church had of “a community center in Alameda where spiritual dialogue was acceptable, if not encouraged.” Pastor Dave Nederhood took that dream he had, found some passionate people who shared his dream, and got to work. They found a space - what had been at various times a brothel, a hotel, a train depot and finally a pub - and rallied the community to help them build their dream. For two years, volunteers descended upon the corner bar every Saturday - cleaning the place, refinishing the bar and furniture, painting the walls, chipping in however they knew how.

A year ago, Crosstown opened its doors and immediately became a cherished spot for everyone in the neighborhood - and not just because they have great coffee. Moms with children go there Friday mornings for sing-alongs with Cowboy Jared; there’s a free knitting and crocheting class on Tuesday nights; on any afternoon of the week, you’ll find 2 or 3 people working on their laptops, camped out at tables sprinkled in between the teenagers who stop for a snack or a chat with Dave on their way home from school.

The Crosstown story inspires me because it shows the power that one person’s dream can have. All it takes is a group of passionate people who believe in an idea, and you really can do anything you put your mind to. Crosstown is doing a major fundraising drive right now - it seems that for the last year, coffee sales have covered all of their expenses except their rent (that’s been taken care of by some extremely generous board members!) If you’ve been inspired by Crosstown’s story, consider sending them a small donation:

Crosstown Community Center
1303 High Street
Alameda, CA 94501

Or just check out their website and read some of the articles - maybe they’ll inspire you to follow a dream of your own!

I just ordered a box of Moo cards for the Drama Farm. If you haven’t been to moo.com yet, you must have a look - you can get a box of 100 mini-cards with up to 100 different images on the front! For now, we’ve got a collection of six theatrically-inclined chickens (all drawn by yours truly!), but I’m working on expanding the set for the next batch of cards we print. Hopefully these guys will arrive before Saturday, so I can take them to Nonprofit Boot Camp with me!

We’ll be setting up a CafePress store soon with lots of chicken gear for you to make your own - but in the meantime, check out the rest of the chickens on my flickr page, and let me know what you think. All input is greatly appreciated!

Chris Brogan recently started a group called the Grasshoppers Network, and I jumped on board immediately - the purpose of the group is “to connect a network of people who seek to help others, in lots of ways: help people find jobs, contribute to social causes, share resources. You decide.” It’s a pretty amazing thing - it’s only been a few weeks, and at last count the group had 364 members; in the 3 weeks since I joined, I’ve helped a musician find retail outlets for his children’s safety songs CDs, learned about easy ways to donate a little money and make a big difference, and gotten a great business plan template from a pretty cool blogging mom.

Chris’ suggestion on how to be helpful this week:

“This week, at least twice, spend a moment of your time promoting someone else. Do your best to tell someone else about a friend or colleague of yours that you admire, and that you feel deserves more attention. Use your blog or podcast or email or LinkedIN or whatever to get the message out there.”

Chris is great about promoting others. If he thinks you’ve got something good - be it a business, a talent, or an idea - he spreads the word to everyone he knows, and makes a special effort to connect you to people who might be interested. Derrick Kwa took his suggestion to heart, and was kind enough to promote the Drama Farm on his blog today. I’ve mentioned him before in passing, but I want to take a minute to single Derrick out, because I’ve been just as inspired by him as he says he is by me.

Derrick is 17 years old and has chosen to leave the formal education system and embark on his own journey through other forms of learning. Far from being the “quitter” that he says many people see him as in Singapore, he’s more interested in learning what he wants and needs to learn for himself than he is in completing the courses and exams he’s “supposed” to take. He has some great thoughts on formal vs. informal education, and on finding your own path through life - if you’re interested in making your own decisions and choosing the path that’s right for you, I’d definitely encourage you to check out his blog.

The goal is to promote at least two people this week, so I’ll write another post in a few days introducing you to another amazing person (all those people up there at the top of the post you get as freebies!). In the meantime, think about the amazing people you know, and tell someone else about them - it’ll give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. And consider joining the Grasshoppers - the more talented people we have looking to help, the more good we can do!

I just signed up for Nonprofit Boot Camp - it’s a one-day conference organized by the Craigslist Foundation, with exhibits, seminars and workshops about starting and running a non-profit organization. Boot Camp SF is in Berkeley on Saturday, August 18th, but there’s also one in New York in September, and I think they’re working on holding them in several other cities in the next year or so. If you’re interested in going, you can check out the event and workshop schedules, and you can register for it here.

While you’re at it, check out the Craigslist Foundation’s nonprofit resources page - they’ve got tons of great information and networking tools to get you started in the world of nonprofiteering!

If you do decide to go to Boot Camp SF, drop me a line and maybe we can meet up in between workshops!

Oh, and a big thanks to Katy and slowe for pointing me towards all this cool stuff!